Tag Archives: Society of Creative Anachronism

Happy Friday, DRAWN Haunt party style! The celebration of my award-winning novel DRAWN‘s 5-year-anniversary continues today with a post that’s all about time travel. If you could go anywhere…er, rather, anywhen, when would you choose? But first, a sale alert! ***Today is the last day to get the Kindle version of my romantic time travel novelDRAWN for just $1.99 by clicking here! This special $1.99 celebration sale ends today, Friday 10/13 at 9 p.m.***

So, if you could travel into the past (hello OUTLANDER fans!), would you go to…

ANYTIME BUT THE PRESENT

I’ve always been a sucker for a good time travel tale. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,The Time Traveler’s Wife, and A Knight in Shining Armor are all favorite books of mine. And then there are the flicks: 13 Going on 30, 17 Again, Kate and Leopold, and the ultimate time travel movie Back to the Future.

What I enjoyed the most was: the ease of the time traveling jumps and the imagery. Marie Lamba has taken the daunting task of creating two different worlds with different rules and done a breathtaking job…Drawn has a great concept and an even bigger message of hope and everlasting love. — Moonlight Book Reviews

I think what I love most about time travel is the way it allows me to toy with what it’d be like to visit another time. Not to be someone who lived in that time long ago or far away, but to be myself encroaching on another world. Whenever I visit an old building, a castle, or a ruin, I can’t help but wonder what the people were like back then. Were they very different? Would I connect with them somehow?

If you could go anywhere, or rather, anywhen, when would you go?

I’d end up smack-dab in the Middle Ages. I’d love to see a fully functioning castle, and women whisking about in those elaborate gowns and pointy headpieces, and knights clanking in their armor, and foppish troubadours strumming lutes.

Honestly, that’s one of the fun things about being a writer — being able to bring your own imaginings to life. In my novel Drawn, Michelle De Freccio is a practical person. She’s an artist, but still is someone firmly grounded in reality and the normal. When she moves to England, she keeps drawing pictures of some guy. Then she starts bumping into him at the town’s castle. That’s when things start to get really strange. Michelle refuses to believe he’s actually from another time, or that she’s no longer in the present. She’s convinced he’s just some nut, until this moment in the novel:

“Try taking your meds,” I tell him, stuffing these things back into my bag. “Try not wearing that cape and boots all the time. While you’re at it, why don’t you take up a hobby, like going to Star Wars conventions as a Jedi knight?” I hang the bag over my shoulder and grab my drawing pad. “I’m leaving and if you follow me, I swear to God I’ll scream and you’ll be in prison faster than you can say Society of Creative Anachronism. Got that?”

He flashes a half smile. He’s so attractive. He’s so cocky. I grit my teeth and back away. I’m near the steps. I turn, about to run down, when I see over the wall something far below. My heart seizes up.

No tourists. No tents. No cars. No parking lot. Just grass, a water-filled moat and a deep forest in the distance.

From this point on, Michelle is forced to believe in things she never thought possible. Like the ability to connect with another time. Or how two people from such different times can feel so close. Of course Michelle and Christopher have serious differences in their beliefs and outlooks on life. Like in this scene:

He drinks a few handfuls of water, then sits back. “First you must tell me, do you support the House of York and the true and rightful king? Or are you with the so-called King Henry, that addlepated idiot who is not sane enough to know his own name?”

“You shouldn’t call him an idiot. He’s sick. Like your father was sick.”

“Lots of people are mentally ill, Christopher. Lots of good people.” The tremble in my voice makes him look up. “If there was a cure, maybe he would get better and have this really great life.”

“Michelle, I happen to know for a fact that physicians have bled the king and attempted to drive out the demons that possess him, and to no avail.”

“That’s not science. It doesn’t fix anything. You know, some day in the future they’ll come up with all sorts of medicines and treatments that will—”

“You think too much.” He stacks his armor in a neat pile.

“And you don’t think enough. You are so, so…”

I’m about to say “medieval” when Christopher says, “So concerned about getting through every day alive.” He holds up the dented piece of armor to punctuate his point, then throws it clattering to the ground.

One of the most fun things about writing a time travel is tossing in modern stuff and contemporary comments into the mix. Like when Michelle, after watching Back to the Future in her own time, goes to Christopher’s time with a book outlining all the battle outcomes of the 1400s. She tells him:

“This book holds all this information about what will happen. In the wrong hands, it could be disastrous. At least according to Hollywood.”

And Christopher responds, “I do not know of this Hollywood person…”

And what does happen with this book? If Christopher uses it, people will live who shouldn’t have, and others will die who shouldn’t have. Quite a mess. Then there’s a scene when Christopher is unconscious from a battle wound, and Michelle tries to save his life with one of those impossibly tiny first aid kits people keep in their purses:

“Okay, modern science to the rescue.” I open the kit and inside are three Band-Aids, a Midol pill, a small foil tube of antibacterial cream and one alcohol wipe. That’s it. I sink onto the chair.

Throughout the novel, the couple faces a ton of challenges as they fall in love. How can they have any sort of life together when every time Michelle sees him, she’s changing destiny in dangerous way? Plus Christopher is “no prince.” His life is intertwined with treachery and murder. And adding to their couple issues is this biggie: every time they kiss, she’s thrown back into her own time.

Can love overcome all of these problems? Should it? Drawnis my way of exploring these questions…and of getting completely lost in past.

***Remember, the $1.99 sale of DRAWNends today, 10/13 at 9 p.m. To take advance of this special DRAWN Haunt celebration price, Click here!

First, a quick update! I’m so excited to announce that Drawn, my new YA paranormal about a hot medieval ghost with a sketchy past, broke into ranking #24 on Amazon’s list for Juvenile Medieval fiction! Happy dance!!! (Medieval jig?)

Now onto the tour…I’m really loving this whole blog tour thing! Week 1 of my Drawn Blog Ghost Tour was amazing, with stops at wonderful book blogger and author sites (to visit any of the stops, just go here for links). Plus a giveaway of a signed copy of Drawn is going on over at The Elliot Review through the end of January! So you still have a chance to win a copy. Just head on over to The Elliot Review and fill in the form at the end of my guest post by clicking here.

And here’s what’s up for Week 2 of the Drawn Blog Ghost Tour!:

Monday, January 23rd: On her blog Mirth & Matter, Author Elizabeth Bunce hosts a guest post I wrote, titled “Picture This.” I talk about how my background as a fine artist shaped Drawn, and how the main character Michelle uses her own artist’s point of view to paint pictures in the reader’s mind.

Tuesday, January 24th: Author Jaye Robin Brown posts a fresh new interview with me over at her fun Hanging on to Wonder blog

Wednesday, January 25th: Twilight Moms posts their review!!!! Plus they run an original interview with me, along with a Drawn BOOK GIVEAWAY! Click on their site for a chance to win your own autographed copy of my new book. 🙂

Thursday, January 26th:All Things Books posts a never-before-seen interview with me. Check it out, and leave some comments. I’ll be commenting back!

Friday, January 27th: All-Consuming Books features my guest post “Going Forth with Resolution.” Are you keeping your New Year’s resolutions? Am I? In this post I talk about all the resolutions that I absolutely, definitely do NOT make. Look forward to your comments there about your own “not made” resolutions…

As always, thanks to all the fabulous bloggers who have made the Drawn Blog Ghost Tour so much fun to haunt. To visit any or all of the stops on the tour, check it all out by clicking here! And we’re only half way through the fun.